This year, the number of Russian tourists visiting Belarus has decreased by 10%, according to the Deputy Minister of Sport and Tourism Mikhail Kravets.
"As for the Russians, their number dropped by about 10%. This is also reflected in the export of tourism services," said Mikhail Kravets.
He believes that this was due to the unstable situation on the Russian financial market and reduced solvency of the Russians. Kravets also said that before that the proportion of Russians in the total number of tourists in Belarus amounted to about 70%. But now "we are entering the markets of Israel, China, USA, Canada, Western Europe. This process is very slow, but it is ongoing."
At the same time, the flow of tourists to Belarus this year has been increasing. Thus, in the first half of the year the country was visited by over 2 million people, which is 10% more than the same period last year.
The volume of exports of travel services totaled 89 million dollars, the Belarusian Telegraph Agency reports.
